Westminster, partners show demo of DT collapsible core

October 30, 2012

PLAINFIELD, CONN. (Oct. 30, 3:20 p.m. ET) — Sometimes customers just want to see how something works — and that’s the approach Westminster Tool Inc. took in hosting a dovetail collapsible core demonstration day this month at its Plainfield plant.

The mold maker partnered with several other firms to demo a mold with a DT collapsible core supplied by Roehr Tool Corp., of Hudson, Mass. The mold ran on Westminster’s 110-ton Toyo injection press making mock-up caps for a cosmetic product. More than 100 students, customers, suppliers and partners participated in the Oct. 3 event.

“It brought our cycle time down 40 percent,” said Phil Titherington, product development director at Mold-Rite Plastics, of Plattsburgh, N.Y.

Titherington said his company started working the collapsible core 12 years ago while retrofitting an old mold. It created significant cost savings so the firm went on to build two 72-cavity collapsible molds.

An enthusiast, Titherington is now working on second-generation prototypes.